Easter, 1916

“Easter, 1916” begins by establishing the voice of the speaker, whom the reader can understand as Yeats himself, and his relationship to the martyrs of the Easter Rising. He writes: “I have met them at close of day / Coming with vivid faces / From counter or desk among grey / Eighteenth-century houses” (Lines 1-4). In these first four lines, Yeats creates the rhythm and meter of the poem, a kind of iambic trimeter (although it varies throughout the poem) with an ABAC rhyming structure. He tells the reader that he is acquainted with these rebels in a casual way, having encountered them on the streets of Dublin as they leave their “counter or desk” (Line 3) at the end of a workday.

Yeats elaborates on the small interactions he has had with the rebels, saying that these interactions have generally consisted of “a nod of the head / Or polite meaningless words” (Lines 5-6). He emphasizes this lack of connection with the repetition of the phrase “polite meaningless words” (Line 8) a few lines later. Not only did Yeats feel a certain amount of polite, aloof indifference towards this group, he adopted a sense of light mockery or judgment toward their political methods, noting that after encountering them, he would often think “Of a mocking tale or a gibe / To please a companion / Around the fire at the club, / Being certain that they and I / But lived where motley is worn” (Lines 10-14).